ESL Issue Statement Regarding VAC Ban Policy

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ESL have recently issued a statement about the recent changes to its policy regarding VAC bans on a professional level.

Here is that statement:

“As there is currently significant discussion and also misunderstanding around the topic of ESL’s policy in regards to cheaters, we want to clarify our position and direction on the topic.

“For the past 15 years ESL has used it’s own anti-cheat technology (ESL Wire) in our matchmaking, ladders and tournaments. It operates an additional layer of security on top of Valve’s VAC system and has been important for guaranteeing the integrity of our competitions. Our policy regarding players caught cheating by our systems has always been the same, namely a 2 year ban from participating in any ESL competitions, which we adopted based on industry best practices in many professional sports.

“This policy of a two year ban was also recently adopted by ESEA, which had previously used only 1 year ban. All of these changes are meant to create consistency for all future bans across all platforms throughout CSGO. So that VAC bans can also be included in this consistent overall framework, we therefore recently updated our competitive rulebook to bring our treatment of them in line with these policies.

“The issue of how to best implement consistent and meaningful punishment for integrity violations of different forms & severity across different levels of competitions is however extremely complex and multifaceted, especially in the light of our ever growing industry.

“We will consult with with players, teams, organizations and sports integrity experts such as ESIC on whether the existing policies are still adequate for professional play in Counter-Strike.

TL;DR

– We expanded our 15 year old policy of 2 years bans to include ESEA/VAC
– Our policies are not set in stone and we will work with relevant parties on optimization”

This statement comes after ESL decided to allow VAC banned players to compete in the Pro League as well as at ESL One and IEM events as long as the ban was issued at least two years prior.

ESL have also been accused of double standards in relation to their disciplinary action towards cheaters and match-fixers. Which they addressed in this statement: “The issue of how to best implement consistent and meaningful punishment for integrity violations of different forms & severity across different levels of competitions is however extremely complex and multifaceted, especially in the light of our ever growing industry.”